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A review by pam_h
Hard Fall by James Buchanan
4.0
3.5 stars
This series is 50% off at Smashwords through Friday (7/31/2020), and I am really enjoying it so far. (Just started Book 3)
For one, it does not have that paint-by-numbers mm romance formula feel to it, which is always appreciated, but especially with LEO characters for me. This is the sub-genre I am least willing to suspend my disbelief for, and for some reason the formula writers have latched on to the handful of tropes I find most annoying with cop/federal agent characters and will not let them go.
But it's the setting that really has me infatuated. We took a hiking trip through southern Utah for my 30th birthday, and I probably spent about six months afterwards trying to convince my husband to move to the exact part these guys live in. We are not climbers -- and never will be; this Utah trip was when we both (rather inconveniently) discovered we have a teeny tiny fear of extreme heights...oops! -- but we are very much outdoors people, so I am absolutely in love with that aspect of these guys' connection to each other.
The sense of place is seriously impressive, and I also love the sense of community among the trained official-types in the greater area. The local cops, state troopers, park rangers, EMTs, volunteer fire responders, etc. all tend to come together to pool their skills and resources however they can since there's so few of them, and I love how naturally Kabe's interests/skills fall into that part of Joe's life.
The religion stuff isn't easy to read, but it stayed just on the right side of overwhelming for me. The level of realism actually helped since I also found the insights into the LDS church interesting, and at this point in the series, most of the people Joe has a personal connection to are pretty supportive. (His parents have just returned from a two-year trip out of the country in Book 3, so we'll see how I feel after that one!)
But Joe gets hit with some pretty serious disgust, even if it's coming from people he doesn't actually care about, and losing the formal connection to his church and that aspect of his community/larger family is heart-breaking for him, even if he's able to focus, for the most part, on the fact that it doesn't change his personal connection to God.
It's only pretty recently that I've gotten to a zen enough place myself to be able to read something like this. It is not the main plot of the book, but it is a big subplot, and it's definitely a big part of Joe's personality/character. There's a religious undercurrent that runs through a lot of the non-religious scenes, partly because of what's going on with Joe and partly because of the community he lives and works in. But there's something different enough about the LDS church -- to, say, your Southern Baptists -- that it doesn't have that automatic triggering effect for me. It's just far enough removed from my reality that I never lost that sense of objectivity. (Which I guess is really just to say that despite my new-ish zen attitude toward religion, Southern Baptists can still trigger the fuck outta me!! For whatever that's worth :)
Also, strange segue, but if you have a hard-line zero tolerance policy against BDSM, this one's not for you. It is a *very* small part of the book, and completely informal (which may be a problem for those on the other end of the BDSM spectrum?), but Joe pretty much completely accidentally stumbles upon the fact that Kabe is a sexy little masochist and Joe is THERE for it. It's the type of thing that didn't bother me at all back when I didn't read BDSM, so I wouldn't let it stop you unless you know for sure it'll ruin the book for you.
This series is 50% off at Smashwords through Friday (7/31/2020), and I am really enjoying it so far. (Just started Book 3)
For one, it does not have that paint-by-numbers mm romance formula feel to it, which is always appreciated, but especially with LEO characters for me. This is the sub-genre I am least willing to suspend my disbelief for, and for some reason the formula writers have latched on to the handful of tropes I find most annoying with cop/federal agent characters and will not let them go.
But it's the setting that really has me infatuated. We took a hiking trip through southern Utah for my 30th birthday, and I probably spent about six months afterwards trying to convince my husband to move to the exact part these guys live in. We are not climbers -- and never will be; this Utah trip was when we both (rather inconveniently) discovered we have a teeny tiny fear of extreme heights...oops! -- but we are very much outdoors people, so I am absolutely in love with that aspect of these guys' connection to each other.
The sense of place is seriously impressive, and I also love the sense of community among the trained official-types in the greater area. The local cops, state troopers, park rangers, EMTs, volunteer fire responders, etc. all tend to come together to pool their skills and resources however they can since there's so few of them, and I love how naturally Kabe's interests/skills fall into that part of Joe's life.
The religion stuff isn't easy to read, but it stayed just on the right side of overwhelming for me. The level of realism actually helped since I also found the insights into the LDS church interesting, and at this point in the series, most of the people Joe has a personal connection to are pretty supportive. (His parents have just returned from a two-year trip out of the country in Book 3, so we'll see how I feel after that one!)
But Joe gets hit with some pretty serious disgust, even if it's coming from people he doesn't actually care about, and losing the formal connection to his church and that aspect of his community/larger family is heart-breaking for him, even if he's able to focus, for the most part, on the fact that it doesn't change his personal connection to God.
It's only pretty recently that I've gotten to a zen enough place myself to be able to read something like this. It is not the main plot of the book, but it is a big subplot, and it's definitely a big part of Joe's personality/character. There's a religious undercurrent that runs through a lot of the non-religious scenes, partly because of what's going on with Joe and partly because of the community he lives and works in. But there's something different enough about the LDS church -- to, say, your Southern Baptists -- that it doesn't have that automatic triggering effect for me. It's just far enough removed from my reality that I never lost that sense of objectivity. (Which I guess is really just to say that despite my new-ish zen attitude toward religion, Southern Baptists can still trigger the fuck outta me!! For whatever that's worth :)
Also, strange segue, but if you have a hard-line zero tolerance policy against BDSM, this one's not for you. It is a *very* small part of the book, and completely informal (which may be a problem for those on the other end of the BDSM spectrum?), but Joe pretty much completely accidentally stumbles upon the fact that Kabe is a sexy little masochist and Joe is THERE for it. It's the type of thing that didn't bother me at all back when I didn't read BDSM, so I wouldn't let it stop you unless you know for sure it'll ruin the book for you.